Give Your Partner a Chance, page 2

One must learn to trust their partner

It is standard to "count on your partner for one trick". Does it never work for you? Could it be that you don't give your partner a chance to help? Many players limit their team's chances of success because they try to take a trick any time they can. This is especially true for those new to the game. How often have you seen someone trump the first trick, only to see their partner play an ace on that same trick? Or have that ace show up later in the hand?

This concept is especially important when calling on weak hands when your partner's help is needed the most. You need to trust your partner to take a trick. Let a trick go by, and use the opportunity to rid your hand of any trash cards you're holding. If the lead was an ace, do trump in, if you can; otherwise, let it pass.

In order to develop this winning strategy, so necessary for all successful euchre partnerships, you must learn to trust your partner. I cannot stress this fact enough: you have a partner! They are there to help, you just have to learn to trust them. The partner must be given the opportunity to play; not doing so is asking to be euchred. Too many players try to play euchre as if it is an individual sport, yet the only time it's individual is when you're going alone.

This is an important part of anyone's euchre strategy. Most of the techniques presented on this website are based on the 'trust your partner' principle. The easiest way for me to explain this is an example. As you look through the following situations think about how you would have played the hand. Would you have given your partner an opportunity to use the cards they hold?

Look at the following hand:

The dealer sits in North position and turns up the ace of clubs. East passes, and South orders his partner(N) to pick up the ace. North then discards the ten of diamonds.

East leads the ten of hearts. The maker(S) rids their hand of a useless jack of spades; West plays the queen. Now North partner gets to make their ace good. Think about how the hand could have turned out it the maker(S) had trumped in and took the heart trick. What would have happened if they then played the right?

North then leads back the ten of spades, and West ducks under the 10 (why? my guess is they didn't want to be in the lead and were instead hoping their partner could take the trick, thus setting up for a possible euchre). The maker(S) trumps the trick with the 9. As they still hold the right, their point is made.

Now Look at this hand:

The dealer is in South position and turns up the king of hearts. Their partner (N), is sitting with both bars and orders up the turn card.

First leadWest leads ten of clubs. The maker(N) trumps with the right…

...Stop...

What is wrong with this play?
To start with, this play tells everyone the maker only holds the two bowers. But because they hold two sure tricks they should be giving their partner every chance possible to get the third trick needed to earn a point.

The player in East smiles from ear to ear, as he now knows where 5 out of the 7 trump are. He also knows he has a good chance of euchring the bidder and winning the game.

The next plays are: * East plays the king of clubs
* Dealer plays the ace of clubs (wasted boss card)

Second lead

* The partner leads the king of diamonds
* East trumps in with the nine of hearts, South and West seat follow suit.
* East now leads the ace of hearts (trump).

Game overNote the score of this game. It was 9 to 9 and bidding team just lost due to a poor play.

Now go back and see what would have happened if the maker (N) had not trumped the ten of clubs?

Don Bunnis the creator of
OhioEuchre.Com.
As a self-proclaimed Euchre authority, Don is involved in teaching Euchre along with the promotion and operation of Euchre tournaments.He can be reached at info@OhioEuchre.Com